Wow! Thank you! We didn't know how to restore files after backing them up to Time Machine. Thank you!!! So helpful. We've saved this video for later in case we need to see it again
Gary, you are the absolute best and my first stop on all questions Mac. I have bought over 40 and I go back to the 2E with Apple. I still own a perfectly functioning 2GS with an Applied Engineering 8 Mhz. accelerator card, and a Mac 7600 with a G3 accelerator card.
I’m having an issue... On an ext HD, Time Machine has run out of space and thus stopped backups entirely. I get a pop up that say something like “Time Machine doesn’t have enough space to back up etc..” Why is this happening? I want Time Machine to ditch older files that aren’t needed and then continue to backup my recent files. This issue has been a huge blunder and time waster. I’m spending weeks researching how to fix this issue and wether or not I should ditch TM for different backup software? Beyond frustrating! FYI there are other files on the drive that TM is on. And why can’t I just delete old TM files? I have ZERO use for backups from 2 months ago, let alone 2 years ago, makes no sense.
This was one of your best informational videos, i love time machine and time capsule and apple, iPhones, Apple TV and MBPros, when i got off Hewlett Packard in 2012 it was the best thing i ever did and i never looked back.
I am commenting on your video mainly because it is so well done and easy to go through the questions. You probably have a video on how to do that and I would love to find out how. My problem was that I had an older Mac Pro and a 4TB SSD that I used as a Time Machine. That drive was accidentally disconnected for quite a while and when I purchased a New Mac Pro, I needed to use it, but it just wouldn't back up my files, so I used a different 4TB drive and created a new Time Machine. Here was the problem. I tried everything to reformat the drive using the advice of RUclipsrs and couldn't get it done on the old machine and thought to install it along with my larger SSD on the new Mac Pro where I would reformat everything and then install everything new. Still, the drive was bulletproof as it was labeled Master Boot. So, I just restarted my Mac Pro with everything installed now and have left the Time Machine drive installed where you are given a choice of "eject," "initialize," or "erase." After so many failures I just chose "eject" and then opened up Disk Utility and tried to erase it and reformat it any way other than "Master Boot." It worked and it took seconds. You have to understand that I had done everything including things said in passing like attaching it to a Windows machine and even then that machine would not do anything. There you go. The question and answer that I was looking for but could not find. Now I can actually use a good and fast 4TB SSD that I was about to toss.
Hi Gary - thanks for another terrific video. Can you tell me whether I should back up Parallels using Time Machine, or will it quickly fill up my external hard drive? Thanks for your help
I’m thinking of using boot camp to use windows on my iMac. I would want to use a drive to turn back the clock, if I decide I no longer want windows on my computer. How would I use time machine for that, would I restart to the full previous stored version? How? You showed us how to go back to an older file, but what about system wide, or what I’m looking for?
Lots of factors there. You should just be able to delete the Boot Camp partition and go back to having macOS have the whole drive. But you'll need to think on your feet when the time comes. I haven't had to do that in probably 10+ years, and a lot has changed. Otherwise, you can always just wipe the drive, reinstall macOS from recovery mode, and then restore your user account and apps from Time Machine (it asks when you set up macOS).
@@macmost thanks a lot . I am finally buying a NAS for the same based on your recommendation in lesson 13 I think . Also for my 2 TB Mackbook pro , I think 6TB would be enough for time machine or should I increase the capacity?
I used to use Time machine but quit doing it as the old drive was suspect after many years. I think I will get a drive and set it up again. Thanks for prompting me on this,
You mentioned that you can use a single drive for multiple computers at 3:48. Do you need to partition the drive or do anything to it to allow it to separate the computers? I haven't been able to get a straight answer online or via Apple Tech Support - but when I plug in my drive to the router I'm only able to select a single one of my partitions to use for Time Machine. Can I remove the partitions all together an backup multiple computers over the network to the same disk without any additional partitioning?
Gary - Love your channel! I'm still trying to figure out how to best backup my MacBook Pro using Time Machine. I'm running both Catalina for legacy programs and Monterey for current apps. It seams that I need to run separate backups for each OS. Is there a better way to do this? Also, any tips on restoring a drive with dual operating systems would be appreciated. Thanks!
My macbook has a 250gig drive and after backing up my iphone it already used up almost 200gig. If I have successfully backed up in time machine, can i delete this iphone backup to free up space and get it back in time machine in the future if needed? Thanks in advance.
short, crisp and really useful. Excellent video. BUt have one question. What if your macbook runs out of power or battery or for some reason, you need to stop the backup and put off your laptop. Can one resume the back up again the next day? Please advise
It will just stop the backup and continue them the next time. But this rarely happens because if you have your MacBook connected to your external Time Machine drive, then why not have it connected to power at the same time?
Hey Gary! Thanks for this video. Just purchased a new MacBook Pro M1 and want to restore from my older MacBook (2015), both are running BigSur. You showed in this video how to restore individual files, but do you have a video that shows how to restore ALL user data to a MacBook that currently has an iOS installed? If so, please point me to it when you have a chance. Thanks so much. Jeff.
You need to use an empty drive. First, you can't back up data from the same drive -- that doesn't make sense for local reasons. Second, you want to let Time Machine control the entire drive. Just get a drive that is dedicated to your backup and nothing else.
Can't I just make two partitions in the drive so it does Time Machines backups and is used for storage? Also, can I use one drive for Time Machine backups with two MacBooks, an older one and a new one?
Thanks Gary, very informative, I do have a specific question. I recently downloaded the latest version of Sonoma 14.6.1 on my iMac and found an issue with one of my programs, I've contacted Apple but they were unable to solve. Just curious, I do have a Time Machine backup prior to downloading this new version of Sonoma, Can I go back to that date and time and restore the old Sonoma version which was working just fine. Appreciate your comments. Regards Tony
Not easily, no. Did you contact the maker of that app about the problem? That would be the thing to do. You can't stop updates and leave your Mac frozen in time and with security updates and compatibility issues just to keep one app going.
You strongly suggest dedicating a drive for Time Machine. Can I partition a large drive and dedicate part of it to Time Machine? Do you see any downside to this strategy?
I currently use Time Machine to backup my MacBook. I also do a weekly disk copy with SuperDuper to a separate drive. If I was to use iCloud fully, so all my data and photos were "in the cloud", would Time Machine still have everything backed up as it does now from the hard disk? With iCloud is all the data physically still on my Mac AND in iCloud or is it only brought back to the Mac when I want to update a file?
Not sure what you mean by "use iCloud fully." There are two options: Not Optimized and Optimized. The first means that every file is stored on your local drive as well as iCloud. The second means that some files are stored only in iCloud, others in both places. In the first instance where everything is also local, then Time Machine can back up everything. In the second case, only the files that are local would be backed up. So it depends on your "Optimize Mac Storage" setting in System Preferences.
Thanks for the video! If I do a full back up of my laptop and for some reason I go back to restore from time machine …does it also restore that backups iOS that it was created at that time or just restore files on current iOS? If I go to restore point that was older iOS will it restore how,it looked back then files and iOS version?
Are you backing up your iPhone to your Mac? If so, that backup file is on your Mac and it would be restored at the same time along with every other file. But iOS backups don't back up the operating system, just your data. But what's your goal here? You don't need to restore your whole Mac just to restore your iPhone.
Hey Gary. Always useful information. thanks. I'm wondering if Time Machine can be used to back up non-OSX work drives to an external i.e. my photo/video drive to an external back up. Can I have Time Machine back up multiple sources to multiple targets? So, a basic OSX backup as usual but also a photo drive to its own back up drive, a video edit drive to it's own back up drive etc... Thanks fro your help
do you know of any way to compare time machine backups? So like a list of differences between them where we can see which files have been added, deleted or modified between 2 or more backups on our external disk so we can quickly check the differences between all our backups and change back any files that were mistakenly changed before it's too late and the oldest backup gets replaced as time passes as we may not have even noticed a change (deletion, addition or modification) on certain files that we may not want to remain as such? That would be a VERY VERY useful tool!!
I just bought a new Mac mini. When I started it up and logged in as an Apple user, I noticed that the calendar and contacts from my old MacBook Pro had already populated those apps. My question is if I use the Migration Asst program from my MacBook Pro to transfer data from a Time Machine backup to my new Mac mini, will there be a bunch of duplicate entries in my calendar and contacts. Thanks
Hi Gary, your videos are great! Question: I've never had much luck with Time Machine. When I look at it in System Preferences it says "Preparing backup...", but the 'progress bar', as it were, is a blue line that bounces back and forth, so I have no idea if it's actually making progress on preparing the backup. Nor are there any numbers displayed, nothing like, 'XX files scanned, XX files remaining'. How can I tell if it is actually preparing backup and not spinning its wheels? Thanks!
Hey Flap Jack. I understand where you are coming from. When it is preparing the drive, there is nothing to indicate how long it will take or if it is actually doing something. How long it takes to do this depends on how much data you have on your system and how often you do the backups. If you leave the drive plugged in, after the initial Preparations are done when you first plug the drive in, the rest of the backups should go pretty quickly and the Preparing backup should not be on for long. However, if you are like me where I can't keep the drive plugged in all the time, then when I do plug the drive in it can take a couple of hours for the preparing drive message to go away and actually start the backup procedure. The only way I know it's doing something is by looking at the hard drive light and see that is flashing so something is happening on the drive. It would be nice to have something showing that something is happening and how long it will take to run the process but it may not be possible because it doesn't know itself how long the process is going to take.
I am new to MAC so thanks for all the great videos. A tech guy suggested I disconnect external drive so it can't be attacked and connect only for backups. How would you address the ransomware attack issue?
Garry, I have my PC backed up to OneDrive with lot of space for free from MS. Can the Time Machine backup my MacBook to a folder on OneDrive? Will OneDrive automatically backup MacBook same as to a External Drive.
Hey Gary, something not mentioned, something I made a huge mistake of when updating to Monterey from Catalina, I reformatted the Time Machine drive to have it work for Monterey, not realizing the obvious, it would delete everything. I do have the majority of stuff on my machine already but, there are some ( photo folder ) that I don't. Right now I tried Easeus 's restore program with no luck ( it found a bunch of unfamiliar file formats ) the company said if they are unfamiliar then it looks like what you are looking for is unrecoverable. I'm trying Wondersoft Iskysoft's program, heard its able to do better and keep the "tree" of the files, so maybe this would be better? My question is, do you know of any ways to be able to restore a deleted snapshot/time machine backup?
Hi Gary! Thanks for this amazing video! Just wondering f you have a video (or if it's even possible) about backing up (time machine) multiple macs with just one drive. Would love to know! Thanks so much!
You can do that with no extra steps needed. Just use the same drive. But if these are stationary Macs, then get them each their own drive so they can be connected all the time. Even if they are laptops, if you are connecting them manually, just get each its own drive. But using one (big) drive is handy when it is connected as a network drive and you are using it backup laptop Macs .
Gary, thank you for sharing your knowledge. I have a MacBook Air that is shutting down by itself periodically. I had not been using time machine. However now that I know the computer has a problem, I purchased a new external hard drive to attempt to record a time machine copy. I found that even in “safe mode” the computer would shut down after about five minutes. I learned that if the computer was kept very cold I could extend the on time in safe mode for a few hours. So by keeping the computer very cold, I was able to make it run for about 4 hours, which was about 20 minutes from getting a full time machine backup. I repeated the following day. I expected time machine to start the previous incomplete backup all over. But it appears that time machine remembered what was left to back up and completed the previously failed back up. So do you believe the above is true, that I do in fact have a comolete backup?
Great video! Can I ask is it risky to just allow Time Machine to delete older backups? Will I lose files? Should I just delete my backup hard drive and start a new complete backup or just keep on doing what I'm doing. Any help much appreciated!
Hey Stephen, so Time Machine is an interesting type of backup system that is unlike most other backup systems. When it makes the incremental backups, backing up only files that have changed or have been added, it then adds what's called a hard link to previous backups so that no matter which date you select to look at, you will see all available files not just the ones that were backed up on that date. By doing this, it saves space by not duplicating something that is already there, it just links to it. If the file changes later on, then the new backup will have the changed file and will not link to the old file. However, the old file is still there if you go to the older date. So what happens if you run out of disk space, the Time Machine will start to overwrite the old data with the new backup information. Will your old data be erased will depend on how long has it been removed from the system? If it was only a couple of weeks ago, then your data will probably be safe but if it months or years ago then yes that data will probably be gone. There are two types of backups. Archival and non-archival. Archival backups are backups of files that you want to make sure never get deleted. Things like photos or may special documents that you just don't ever want to be deleted. Those should be backed up separately from time machine either on a CD, Flash drive, or another hard drive or partition. I have separate partition on my time machine drive where I have some things stored that I don't want deleted right now. I usually drag and drop them over that partition. Time machine is more of a non-archival backup that is used for disaster recovery should something happen while you are using the system. It will keep old backups for as long as possible but it will assume that if the data is old enough that is not being backed up because it has been removed from the system then it probably isn't important anymore and will eventually delete it when it needs space. So I hope this helps to understand the types of backups and what happens when it runs out of space.
Gary, thanks for this material. I have subscribed and support you on Patreon. I am a newbie in every sense of the word. Here's my dilemma: I use two time machine backups as you mentioned... one at home and one at work. The one at work can be ejected easily by going to Finder, locating the drive and ejecting. The drive at home will occasionally work in the same way, but usually no matter how often you push on the eject symbol, you are told something is using the drive. If you Force Quit, there is a warning the drive isn't being ejected properly. Thoughts?
I backed up Catalina across the network to an external drive that’s plugged into an AirPort Extreme (5th Gen). I booted into Internet Recovery and selected Restore From Time Machine Backup. When I click “connect” I am prompted for a password for “System Administrator” The ONLY pwd anywhere is my pwd to login and the password to access AirPort Extreme. Any thoughts?
Great job! And I know this is 3 years old, but I'm reaching out in case you still check messages on this video! In time machine, the "little" lines (before "today" or "right now" are not available to click on unless I click and hold down "Today," but once I let "today" go, I am unable to click on the little lines I see that are for yesterday. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Question: Time Machine backup way back from 2014 Snow Leopard onto a 1TB WD drive... I didn't understand "backups" at all then and rather than formatting it via Disk Utility, the drive self formatted when I used Time Machine. My goal was to backup .jpg and .mov or .mp4 on my system to the hard drive so I could view and copy files with any other computer (Windows, Mac)... any way to retrieve the files now to see and copy them as usable to another computer or external drive?
I want to clear my macbook from holiday pictures, etc but still want them on my external drive. Is it possible to delete them from my macbook and still use Time Machine for other files? Or will the photos be synced and deleted this way?
Excellent video, but I have a question. It looks like the Time Machine stopped doing backups to the external drive 2 years ago on the Mac I am inspecting. It sounds like the external drive is broken (makes noise). However, Time Machine seems to be continuing to do back ups somehow. Does it default to the internal Mac drive for TM backups when the external gets corrupted? I’m confused.
Can I back up my new M1 MacBook Air to my old 3 TB time capsule? I’d like to reformat the time capsule but I’m not sure which format to choose. Will it function with the new M1 Mac’s?
I strongly recommend a dedicated drive for this. Get a large HDD (cheap per TB). If you use the drive for other purposes, then those files on the drive won't really be backed up (one drive = one point of failure).
Let's say I do a full time machine backup, then upgrade my OS to a new release (e.g. OS X 10 to OS X 14) and certain programs or plugins no longer work, can I restore everything back to the way it was? I.e., revert from OS X 14 back to OS X 10, and all files just as they were before, as if the OS upgrade never took place?
As always Gary, Thank you for the great video! I just received back my Late 2016 Macbook Pro w/ touchbar from Apple and want to completely restore it from my Time machine backup. Do you have a video on completely restoring from Time Machine? Thanks again and Happy New Year!!
Gary, the drive on my 3t Time Machine stopped working about a month ago, and ordered a 4T 3.5 Sata replacement. how would I copy the data from the old one onto the new one. (I haven't replaced yet). Love your videos..
Hello, I already have an External drive (Seagate 1 TB). It has around 500GB data already. Can I use Time Machine to backup the data on my Mac (around 300GB) ? I am asking because I don't want to loose my 500 GB data already present on external drive. Thank you in advance ! :)
I'm trying to setup my Time Machine drive to back up other external hard drives. When I open option the drives I want to include are greyed out(I cannot delete then from the exclude list). Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong. Thank you.
Thank you Garry. I have a question. I have a 3 TB HDD and designated 1 TB partition for my Time Machine backups, and 2 TB for my data (photos, files etc.) So, now I want to move or transfer the current Time Machine backup into a separate HDD. Is it possible to do so?
Having data and a backup on the same drive is a bad idea. Your photos and files on that drive aren't backed up to another drive that way. Switching to a separate drive is the right way to go. Don't transfer the backup, just start a new one there.
Hi. Are you able to use Time Machine to back up everything on my IMac on a Time Capsule, & all so just back up photos From an external drive to a other external drive
My 16 TB Time Machine drive is getting full. I have begun using a cloud service for my photo library because I'm piling up too many drives on my desk (professional photography). Will Time Machine eventually delete files that I have taken off the source drive or is there a safe way to remove them manually?
No, it shouldn't. It should keep one copy of everything. You may want to consider reformatting the drive and starting again. Or, since you are a professional, put that drive away and start a new one.
Hi Gary... I'm truly fan of your videos and content presentation.. Can I back up my SD card permanently inserted on Mac with Time Machine and same drive?? If yes, how..
Thanks for the video. I know TM is supposed to erase oldest versions when drive fills up, but mine is now saying it cannot complete backup because of lack of disk space. Why will it not just erase old versions? 500gig MacBook - 1tb dedicated external time machine drive.
There is a limit. It removes older versions of each file, but keeps one copy at least (otherwise it wouldn't be a very good backup). So as you delete files and replace them with others there is one copy of the deleted file still around. That's how you fill up a Time Machine drive. How fast that happens depends on the type of things you do on your Mac. 1TB is definitely much too small of a drive for Time Machine in your case.
Hi Gary...I would like to take a backup of my macbook with time machine...now I already have data in my 4TB WD external hard drive ...is there a way to use time machine without deleting or removing the current data in my external hard drive? Thanks
How do you back up the apps or software on your mac or does TM automatically backup everything you use on your device? E.G. your entire adobe creative suite.
It does, but that doesn't matter. If your Mac were to die or get stolen, you could just re-download the Adobe apps using Creative Cloud. No need to restore from a backup at all.
Do you have any videos regarding searching for files on an external drive? I'm having issues there. Files I know are on that drive are not present in the Finder search.
can I use the very same external HD to back up 2 Mac OSX systems...? in my case my MacBook runs Mavericks (1/3) and High Sierra (2/3) ... if yes how should I proceed...? maybe I have to apply 2 partitions and Time Machine back up Mavericks to one and High Sierra to another... right...?
If you are talking about a networked drive, then yes, people do that all the time. But if you have to physically move the drive from one Mac to another, then just get another drive for each to make it easier. Of course if you are using iCloud Drive and storing everything in there, you may only really need to backup one Mac since they would all have the same files on them, right?
@@macmost well, by now I'm using the same external HD (1T) divided in 2 partitions (500) to Time machine back up both systems ("Mavericks" & "High Sierra") I mean one system one partition ... thanks for your reply...! actually "work in progress", 6 hrs remaining...! for High Sierra...!
Hi Gary, love all your videos on Macs.I'm not sure if you can help me, but my desk top iMac stopped backing up to Time Machine. I went into settings and found out that Macintosh HD was listed as excluded from back-ups. I highlighted "Macintosh HD" and clicked the minus sign, but nothing changed. Any thoughts?
If I use Time Machine, will there be a notification alert or warning if the backup drive fails? So that it can be replaced with a new backup hard drive.
I strongly recommend against that. For one thing, it would mean the stuff on the other partition wouldn't be backed up (same drive, one point of failure). Just get another drive. They are cheap.
Sorry if this is a beginner question, I am replace my current external HD drive that I use for backups for a larger Capacity one, can I still plug in the old one and get a file from it after its not being used as the timemachine backup drive? Thank you.
Yes. You can actually have multiple Time Machine backups. So when you start the new one, it is like you have two going. You can always bring in the original and grab a file from that (hopefully you don't need to, unless there is an emergency). I have done this, just keeping the old one around for a month or so.
Hi Gary, Another splendid video! Thank you. I really appreciate your style of delivery and the quality of your content. At 1:52, you mentioned the option of connecting an external drive to a WiFi router. I like that option as I have an aging NAS (a 10 year old WD My Book Cloud drive). I want to replace it before it goes ka-put. Do you have a video with steps for that configuration? Or should I go for a replacement NAS kit. My apologies if this is a duplicate question (I might've overlooked it the comments).
Hi Gary, thanks for the Great Video. I am new to Apple eco system & I have a dumb question.. Can you please help me understand if multiple users with separate Apple IDs use the same Time Machine? Example, can myself and my roommate use the same time Machine drive to take backups of our iphones and MacBooks without sharing our Apple ID credentials with each other?
Time Machine is for the whole Mac. Once you start the backup it will back up the entire drive (unless you exclude something manually) including all users. But Time Machine is for Macs, not iPhones. It won't do anything for your iPhone. If you let your roommate create another account on your Mac then it would back up their account too.
@@mediashare7021 Nothing similar. You can connect your iPhone to a Mac and use the backup function in the Finder to back up the iPhone's data. But that doesn't work very well as it relies on you manually connecting the iPhone. Using iCloud backup is best.
Thank you, I was looking for a solution to back up my video files. I was wondering If my time machine drive could be the second drive in a daisy chain (first drive hooked up to my computer, second time machine hooked up to my first drive)?
Thanks for the wonderful and informative vid. A quick question , could Time Machine be used to restore a computer’s previous state . Let’s say, I have installed MS Office 365 into my Mac and I would like to use TimeMachine to go back to the state before MS Office was installed . The whole thing is like uninstall MS Office. Could Time Machine fulfil this function? Thanks in advance for your wonderful tips. 😊
Yes, using the Restore option in recovery mode. But you definitely don't want to do that to just uninstall Microsoft Office. That is way too much work with way too much risk for such a simple thing. Just uninstall it normally. Assuming you installed from the Microsoft download (not the Mac App Store) the instructions are here: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-for-mac-eefa1199-5b58-43af-8a3d-b73dc1a8cae3
How to view, restore a photo from Time Machine? (not whole library, it's huge ) Macbook drive mainly has pics and own videos, got 2 TB ssd for TM, ran OK, can open TM, see Pictures folder with Photos lib in it (just like macbook finder.) Click Photos library in mb Finder Pictures folder, see pics OK Click Photos in TM finder Pictures folder, it does not open Photos app (just a big dead file :) Thanks for great, concise video. And any explanation: If MB ssd full, delete some videos or pics I know are on TM, how do I find, see and restore just those?
Where does time machine keep data files associated with an app? After the last IOS update, I can no longer access an app so I’ve lost access to the text documents associated with it as well. I assume the time machine backup includes material synced from a device as well, I just can’t find it anywhere.
What if you are a person that uses a laptop just to listen to music, and send emails, just basic things like that. Do you really need it? Because I’m trying to help my grandma out cuz she is running out of storage, the “system storage” is taking up a lot of space. And I found that backup time machine is probably mostly part of the system storage. So, do you think I could delete some of the stuff that’s backed up? She just needs the laptop for listening for songs on chrome, and send emails, or letters.
Is there a problem though? It would use extra storage for backup "snapshots" but only if there is room. If she only uses it for these things, and there is no problem, don't worry about "system storage" and let macOS manage that.
@@macmost The problem is ... "she has reached the storage limit". Specs: 121 GB, Macbook ari 2020. In the Desktop: there is only 1 file, which is less than a Mega byte. Applications: about 14 GB. there was other stuff too, but the one that stood out the most was the system storage. It took almost half her storage. about 50 GB. I tried looking in the library, but I don't see any big files, and I'm afraid to delete any files in the library, cuz first of all, there aren't any big files to delete (some of them or 0 bytes, some 2kb, 5kb...). And i'm kinda afraid that i might delete some important file. So after doing some research, about how to manage, delete files from system storage, on most of the videos/articles I read, they mentioned time machine "snap shots", and deleting those might help.
@@Ginfio Don't worry about "categories" like system storage. Look in her Home folder. Which folder there is biggest? Look in Documents, same. Look in Applications. Do an inventory on a folder-by-folder basis to find out what is taking up space.
@@macmost hmm, ok. I looked everywhere. but I WILL look again. Do you think deleting older snapshots would be a bad idea, or do you think that could be something we could do? too.
Hi Gary! I have multiple USB Time Machine Backups. Right now I plug one in every week or so and let it do a backup then remove it. I would like to leave one in all the time and just swap them every so often, but then I have to eject the USB to unplug my Mac from the dock (which I always forget to do). Any tips for handling this other than going with the network option?
@@macmost I really like time machine, and prefer it over the others. I also like always having something offline. I think my solution will be to do both network and USB (temporarily connecting just to back up every so often). Just wish there was some option to tell TM to 'back up at 2pm then disconnect the drive' or something like that.
Great video. I would like to buy a 4 TB external harddisk to connect to my network for backing up two macbooks. I already have a WD My passport for mac, but that does not seem to function in a network as it must be connected to a mac directly. Which harddisk could you recommend?
I don't have any specific recommendation as I haven't tried enough of a variety to say that one is better than the other. Just buy one that has good reviews. Why doesn't your current external drive work when connected to your network?
I’ve got a question if I use time machine and I get everything backed up on a external hard drive and then just save it for future use. Then say a year from now I get a really bad virus that renders my Mac Book Pro almost useless . Can I use the time machine back up I have to go back and restore it to a time before I got the virus?
As you said, I kept backing up two laptops in one external drive. I am trying to restore one of them (new SSD installed), and Disk Utility can only see other laptop's Time Machine file is not listed in the choice menu. How to get to them?
Wow! Thank you! We didn't know how to restore files after backing them up to Time Machine. Thank you!!! So helpful. We've saved this video for later in case we need to see it again
Thanks. Been a mac user for 20yrs. Never bothered with Time Machine. Your vid has changed my mind. Thank you. 😁
Gary, you are the absolute best and my first stop on all questions Mac. I have bought over 40 and I go back to the 2E with Apple. I still own a perfectly functioning 2GS with an Applied Engineering 8 Mhz. accelerator card, and a Mac 7600 with a G3 accelerator card.
the best and most clearest breakdown of time machine. greatly appreciated.
I’m having an issue... On an ext HD, Time Machine has run out of space and thus stopped backups entirely. I get a pop up that say something like “Time Machine doesn’t have enough space to back up etc..” Why is this happening? I want Time Machine to ditch older files that aren’t needed and then continue to backup my recent files. This issue has been a huge blunder and time waster. I’m spending weeks researching how to fix this issue and wether or not I should ditch TM for different backup software? Beyond frustrating!
FYI there are other files on the drive that TM is on. And why can’t I just delete old TM files? I have ZERO use for backups from 2 months ago, let alone 2 years ago, makes no sense.
I love your tutorials. I get all my questions answered -many thanks.!
I love you with all my heart Gary don’t you ever stop making Mac videos. Please ❤️
Thanks Gary. You didn’t discuss encrypting the TM backup drive. That’s really important for me.
Great video -- you make everything crystal clear & logical. Thank you!
Excellent video, thank you! Clear, concise, informative.
Gary, Thanks for sharing your expertise with the world!
This was one of your best informational videos, i love time machine and time capsule and apple, iPhones, Apple TV and MBPros, when i got off Hewlett Packard in 2012 it was the best thing i ever did and i never looked back.
I am commenting on your video mainly because it is so well done and easy to go through the questions. You probably have a video on how to do that and I would love to find out how.
My problem was that I had an older Mac Pro and a 4TB SSD that I used as a Time Machine. That drive was accidentally disconnected for quite a while and when I purchased a New Mac Pro, I needed to use it, but it just wouldn't back up my files, so I used a different 4TB drive and created a new Time Machine.
Here was the problem. I tried everything to reformat the drive using the advice of RUclipsrs and couldn't get it done on the old machine and thought to install it along with my larger SSD on the new Mac Pro where I would reformat everything and then install everything new. Still, the drive was bulletproof as it was labeled Master Boot.
So, I just restarted my Mac Pro with everything installed now and have left the Time Machine drive installed where you are given a choice of "eject," "initialize," or "erase."
After so many failures I just chose "eject" and then opened up Disk Utility and tried to erase it and reformat it any way other than "Master Boot." It worked and it took seconds. You have to understand that I had done everything including things said in passing like attaching it to a Windows machine and even then that machine would not do anything.
There you go. The question and answer that I was looking for but could not find. Now I can actually use a good and fast 4TB SSD that I was about to toss.
Hi Gary. I want to back up my mac mini and an external drive, your video gave me the answer I wanted Many thanks
Hi Gary - thanks for another terrific video. Can you tell me whether I should back up Parallels using Time Machine, or will it quickly fill up my external hard drive? Thanks for your help
I’m thinking of using boot camp to use windows on my iMac. I would want to use a drive to turn back the clock, if I decide I no longer want windows on my computer. How would I use time machine for that, would I restart to the full previous stored version? How? You showed us how to go back to an older file, but what about system wide, or what I’m looking for?
Lots of factors there. You should just be able to delete the Boot Camp partition and go back to having macOS have the whole drive. But you'll need to think on your feet when the time comes. I haven't had to do that in probably 10+ years, and a lot has changed. Otherwise, you can always just wipe the drive, reinstall macOS from recovery mode, and then restore your user account and apps from Time Machine (it asks when you set up macOS).
Time machine uses full backup or incremental backup ?
Time Machine is incremental. It only backs up what is new or changed.
@@macmost thanks a lot . I am finally buying a NAS for the same based on your recommendation in lesson 13 I think . Also for my 2 TB Mackbook pro , I think 6TB would be enough for time machine or should I increase the capacity?
@@TheICUChannel Hard to know, but the more capacity the longer your backup will be.
@@macmost Thank u . Thanks again for reply . You are a gem 💎
I used to use Time machine but quit doing it as the old drive was suspect after many years. I think I will get a drive and set it up again. Thanks for prompting me on this,
You mentioned that you can use a single drive for multiple computers at 3:48. Do you need to partition the drive or do anything to it to allow it to separate the computers? I haven't been able to get a straight answer online or via Apple Tech Support - but when I plug in my drive to the router I'm only able to select a single one of my partitions to use for Time Machine. Can I remove the partitions all together an backup multiple computers over the network to the same disk without any additional partitioning?
Thank you Gary very well explained with sweet voice 😊🇨🇦
Gary - Love your channel! I'm still trying to figure out how to best backup my MacBook Pro using Time Machine. I'm running both Catalina for legacy programs and Monterey for current apps. It seams that I need to run separate backups for each OS. Is there a better way to do this? Also, any tips on restoring a drive with dual operating systems would be appreciated. Thanks!
My macbook has a 250gig drive and after backing up my iphone it already used up almost 200gig. If I have successfully backed up in time machine, can i delete this iphone backup to free up space and get it back in time machine in the future if needed? Thanks in advance.
short, crisp and really useful. Excellent video. BUt have one question. What if your macbook runs out of power or battery or for some reason, you need to stop the backup and put off your laptop. Can one resume the back up again the next day? Please advise
It will just stop the backup and continue them the next time. But this rarely happens because if you have your MacBook connected to your external Time Machine drive, then why not have it connected to power at the same time?
Hey Gary! Thanks for this video. Just purchased a new MacBook Pro M1 and want to restore from my older MacBook (2015), both are running BigSur. You showed in this video how to restore individual files, but do you have a video that shows how to restore ALL user data to a MacBook that currently has an iOS installed? If so, please point me to it when you have a chance. Thanks so much. Jeff.
...and btw, I do have a Time Machine backup.
Gary what if I use a non empty external hard disk for time machine. Will it delete all the things stored in it ??
You need to use an empty drive. First, you can't back up data from the same drive -- that doesn't make sense for local reasons. Second, you want to let Time Machine control the entire drive. Just get a drive that is dedicated to your backup and nothing else.
Can't I just make two partitions in the drive so it does Time Machines backups and is used for storage? Also, can I use one drive for Time Machine backups with two MacBooks, an older one and a new one?
Thanks Gary, very informative, I do have a specific question. I recently downloaded the latest version of Sonoma 14.6.1 on my iMac and found an issue with one of my programs, I've contacted Apple but they were unable to solve. Just curious, I do have a Time Machine backup prior to downloading this new version of Sonoma, Can I go back to that date and time and restore the old Sonoma version which was working just fine. Appreciate your comments. Regards Tony
Not easily, no. Did you contact the maker of that app about the problem? That would be the thing to do. You can't stop updates and leave your Mac frozen in time and with security updates and compatibility issues just to keep one app going.
You strongly suggest dedicating a drive for Time Machine. Can I partition a large drive and dedicate part of it to Time Machine? Do you see any downside to this strategy?
I currently use Time Machine to backup my MacBook. I also do a weekly disk copy with SuperDuper to a separate drive. If I was to use iCloud fully, so all my data and photos were "in the cloud", would Time Machine still have everything backed up as it does now from the hard disk? With iCloud is all the data physically still on my Mac AND in iCloud or is it only brought back to the Mac when I want to update a file?
Not sure what you mean by "use iCloud fully." There are two options: Not Optimized and Optimized. The first means that every file is stored on your local drive as well as iCloud. The second means that some files are stored only in iCloud, others in both places. In the first instance where everything is also local, then Time Machine can back up everything. In the second case, only the files that are local would be backed up. So it depends on your "Optimize Mac Storage" setting in System Preferences.
Thanks for the video! If I do a full back up of my laptop and for some reason I go back to restore from time machine …does it also restore that backups iOS that it was created at that time or just restore files on current iOS? If I go to restore point that was older iOS will it restore how,it looked back then files and iOS version?
Are you backing up your iPhone to your Mac? If so, that backup file is on your Mac and it would be restored at the same time along with every other file. But iOS backups don't back up the operating system, just your data. But what's your goal here? You don't need to restore your whole Mac just to restore your iPhone.
Hey Gary. Always useful information. thanks. I'm wondering if Time Machine can be used to back up non-OSX work drives to an external i.e. my photo/video drive to an external back up. Can I have Time Machine back up multiple sources to multiple targets? So, a basic OSX backup as usual but also a photo drive to its own back up drive, a video edit drive to it's own back up drive etc...
Thanks fro your help
No, it isn't configurable to that level. It is meant to be easy to use, but you want something more pro level.
I'm on windows but this was a super simple breakdown. I have a 256gb hard drive computer with a 8tb HDD running every 10 minutes. Thanks
do you know of any way to compare time machine backups? So like a list of differences between them where we can see which files have been added, deleted or modified between 2 or more backups on our external disk so we can quickly check the differences between all our backups and change back any files that were mistakenly changed before it's too late and the oldest backup gets replaced as time passes as we may not have even noticed a change (deletion, addition or modification) on certain files that we may not want to remain as such? That would be a VERY VERY useful tool!!
I just bought a new Mac mini. When I started it up and logged in as an Apple user, I noticed that the calendar and contacts from my old MacBook Pro had already populated those apps. My question is if I use the Migration Asst program from my MacBook Pro to transfer data from a Time Machine backup to my new Mac mini, will there be a bunch of duplicate entries in my calendar and contacts. Thanks
Hi Gary, your videos are great! Question: I've never had much luck with Time Machine. When I look at it in System Preferences it says "Preparing backup...", but the 'progress bar', as it were, is a blue line that bounces back and forth, so I have no idea if it's actually making progress on preparing the backup. Nor are there any numbers displayed, nothing like, 'XX files scanned, XX files remaining'. How can I tell if it is actually preparing backup and not spinning its wheels?
Thanks!
Hey Flap Jack. I understand where you are coming from. When it is preparing the drive, there is nothing to indicate how long it will take or if it is actually doing something. How long it takes to do this depends on how much data you have on your system and how often you do the backups. If you leave the drive plugged in, after the initial Preparations are done when you first plug the drive in, the rest of the backups should go pretty quickly and the Preparing backup should not be on for long. However, if you are like me where I can't keep the drive plugged in all the time, then when I do plug the drive in it can take a couple of hours for the preparing drive message to go away and actually start the backup procedure. The only way I know it's doing something is by looking at the hard drive light and see that is flashing so something is happening on the drive. It would be nice to have something showing that something is happening and how long it will take to run the process but it may not be possible because it doesn't know itself how long the process is going to take.
@@DrWho453 Patrick, thank you so much for taking the time to send such an insightful response!
Much appreciated!
Never could figure out how to restore an old version of a file…thanks so much.
Very helpful video. Thanks for taking the time to make and upload this.
I am new to MAC so thanks for all the great videos. A tech guy suggested I disconnect external drive so it can't be attacked and connect only for backups. How would you address the ransomware attack issue?
Garry, I have my PC backed up to OneDrive with lot of space for free from MS. Can the Time Machine backup my MacBook to a folder on OneDrive? Will OneDrive automatically backup MacBook same as to a External Drive.
Hey Gary, something not mentioned, something I made a huge mistake of when updating to Monterey from Catalina, I reformatted the Time Machine drive to have it work for Monterey, not realizing the obvious, it would delete everything.
I do have the majority of stuff on my machine already but, there are some ( photo folder ) that I don't.
Right now I tried Easeus 's restore program with no luck ( it found a bunch of unfamiliar file formats ) the company said if they are unfamiliar then it looks like what you are looking for is unrecoverable.
I'm trying Wondersoft Iskysoft's program, heard its able to do better and keep the "tree" of the files, so maybe this would be better?
My question is, do you know of any ways to be able to restore a deleted snapshot/time machine backup?
The revelation happened at minute 6:30! Thanks, Gary.
Hi Gary! Thanks for this amazing video! Just wondering f you have a video (or if it's even possible) about backing up (time machine) multiple macs with just one drive. Would love to know! Thanks so much!
You can do that with no extra steps needed. Just use the same drive. But if these are stationary Macs, then get them each their own drive so they can be connected all the time. Even if they are laptops, if you are connecting them manually, just get each its own drive. But using one (big) drive is handy when it is connected as a network drive and you are using it backup laptop Macs .
Gary, thank you for sharing your knowledge. I have a MacBook Air that is shutting down by itself periodically. I had not been using time machine. However now that I know the computer has a problem, I purchased a new external hard drive to attempt to record a time machine copy. I found that even in “safe mode” the computer would shut down after about five minutes. I learned that if the computer was kept very cold I could extend the on time in safe mode for a few hours. So by keeping the computer very cold, I was able to make it run for about 4 hours, which was about 20 minutes from getting a full time machine backup. I repeated the following day. I expected time machine to start the previous incomplete backup all over. But it appears that time machine remembered what was left to back up and completed the previously failed back up. So do you believe the above is true, that I do in fact have a comolete backup?
Great video! Can I ask is it risky to just allow Time Machine to delete older backups? Will I lose files? Should I just delete my backup hard drive and start a new complete backup or just keep on doing what I'm doing. Any help much appreciated!
Hey Stephen, so Time Machine is an interesting type of backup system that is unlike most other backup systems. When it makes the incremental backups, backing up only files that have changed or have been added, it then adds what's called a hard link to previous backups so that no matter which date you select to look at, you will see all available files not just the ones that were backed up on that date. By doing this, it saves space by not duplicating something that is already there, it just links to it. If the file changes later on, then the new backup will have the changed file and will not link to the old file. However, the old file is still there if you go to the older date. So what happens if you run out of disk space, the Time Machine will start to overwrite the old data with the new backup information. Will your old data be erased will depend on how long has it been removed from the system? If it was only a couple of weeks ago, then your data will probably be safe but if it months or years ago then yes that data will probably be gone. There are two types of backups. Archival and non-archival. Archival backups are backups of files that you want to make sure never get deleted. Things like photos or may special documents that you just don't ever want to be deleted. Those should be backed up separately from time machine either on a CD, Flash drive, or another hard drive or partition. I have separate partition on my time machine drive where I have some things stored that I don't want deleted right now. I usually drag and drop them over that partition. Time machine is more of a non-archival backup that is used for disaster recovery should something happen while you are using the system. It will keep old backups for as long as possible but it will assume that if the data is old enough that is not being backed up because it has been removed from the system then it probably isn't important anymore and will eventually delete it when it needs space. So I hope this helps to understand the types of backups and what happens when it runs out of space.
Gary, thanks for this material. I have subscribed and support you on Patreon. I am a newbie in every sense of the word. Here's my dilemma: I use two time machine backups as you mentioned... one at home and one at work. The one at work can be ejected easily by going to Finder, locating the drive and ejecting. The drive at home will occasionally work in the same way, but usually no matter how often you push on the eject symbol, you are told something is using the drive. If you Force Quit, there is a warning the drive isn't being ejected properly. Thoughts?
I backed up Catalina across the network to an external drive that’s plugged into an AirPort Extreme (5th Gen). I booted into Internet Recovery and selected Restore From Time Machine Backup. When I click “connect” I am prompted for a password for “System Administrator”
The ONLY pwd anywhere is my pwd to login and the password to access AirPort Extreme. Any thoughts?
Very helpful video - it answered the questions I had about Time Machine. Thanks very much!
Great job! And I know this is 3 years old, but I'm reaching out in case you still check messages on this video! In time machine, the "little" lines (before "today" or "right now" are not available to click on unless I click and hold down "Today," but once I let "today" go, I am unable to click on the little lines I see that are for yesterday. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Question: Time Machine backup way back from 2014 Snow Leopard onto a 1TB WD drive... I didn't understand "backups" at all then and rather than formatting it via Disk Utility, the drive self formatted when I used Time Machine. My goal was to backup .jpg and .mov or .mp4 on my system to the hard drive so I could view and copy files with any other computer (Windows, Mac)... any way to retrieve the files now to see and copy them as usable to another computer or external drive?
Hi, Did you manage to solve your 'problem' as I too have the same question?
@@PeterCheape no
I want to clear my macbook from holiday pictures, etc but still want them on my external drive. Is it possible to delete them from my macbook and still use Time Machine for other files? Or will the photos be synced and deleted this way?
Very helpful video for me, a new user!
Excellent video, but I have a question. It looks like the Time Machine stopped doing backups to the external drive 2 years ago on the Mac I am inspecting. It sounds like the external drive is broken (makes noise). However, Time Machine seems to be continuing to do back ups somehow. Does it default to the internal Mac drive for TM backups when the external gets corrupted? I’m confused.
support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015
Can I back up my new M1 MacBook Air to my old 3 TB time capsule? I’d like to reformat the time capsule but I’m not sure which format to choose. Will it function with the new M1 Mac’s?
Just reformat it as a blank APFS. Time Machine would format it for you even if you got it wrong.
Superb video. Would time machine also back-up everything related to Parallels, if installed on a Mac? Thank you very much.
Yes
@@stanleynowak9325 Thank you very much, Stanley. Definitely something that has been frequently was on my mind. I am much more relaxed now.
I saw someone say they partitioned their drive to use as both a time machine backup and additional storage. Will that cause a problem?
Does it have to be a dedicated external drive(i.e. just for the backup) or I can use a "used" drive for other purposes?
I strongly recommend a dedicated drive for this. Get a large HDD (cheap per TB). If you use the drive for other purposes, then those files on the drive won't really be backed up (one drive = one point of failure).
Let's say I do a full time machine backup, then upgrade my OS to a new release (e.g. OS X 10 to OS X 14) and certain programs or plugins no longer work, can I restore everything back to the way it was? I.e., revert from OS X 14 back to OS X 10, and all files just as they were before, as if the OS upgrade never took place?
As always Gary, Thank you for the great video! I just received back my Late 2016 Macbook Pro w/ touchbar from Apple and want to completely restore it from my Time machine backup. Do you have a video on completely restoring from Time Machine? Thanks again and Happy New Year!!
I don't have a video on that particular subject. When you restore a Mac it is basically one of the options you get in migration assistant.
Gary, the drive on my 3t Time Machine stopped working about a month ago, and ordered a 4T 3.5 Sata replacement. how would I copy the data from the old one onto the new one. (I haven't replaced yet). Love your videos..
Thanks, Gary. Am I able to exclude different folders for different Time Machine drive backups?
No, there’s no way to do that.
If you don't use your computer for a few days will time machine continue to back up? I noticed there were no backups over the weekend.
Hello,
I already have an External drive (Seagate 1 TB). It has around 500GB data already.
Can I use Time Machine to backup the data on my Mac (around 300GB) ?
I am asking because I don't want to loose my 500 GB data already present on external drive.
Thank you in advance ! :)
I'm trying to setup my Time Machine drive to back up other external hard drives. When I open option the drives I want to include are greyed out(I cannot delete then from the exclude list). Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong. Thank you.
Bravo Gary awesome tutorial
Thank you Garry.
I have a question. I have a 3 TB HDD and designated 1 TB partition for my Time Machine backups, and 2 TB for my data (photos, files etc.)
So, now I want to move or transfer the current Time Machine backup into a separate HDD. Is it possible to do so?
Having data and a backup on the same drive is a bad idea. Your photos and files on that drive aren't backed up to another drive that way. Switching to a separate drive is the right way to go. Don't transfer the backup, just start a new one there.
Hi. Are you able to use Time Machine to back up everything on my IMac on a Time Capsule, & all so just back up photos
From an external drive to a other external drive
My 16 TB Time Machine drive is getting full. I have begun using a cloud service for my photo library because I'm piling up too many drives on my desk (professional photography). Will Time Machine eventually delete files that I have taken off the source drive or is there a safe way to remove them manually?
No, it shouldn't. It should keep one copy of everything. You may want to consider reformatting the drive and starting again. Or, since you are a professional, put that drive away and start a new one.
Hi Gary... I'm truly fan of your videos and content presentation..
Can I back up my SD card permanently inserted on Mac with Time Machine and same drive?? If yes, how..
thank you for the information it was excellent.
Thanks for the video.
I know TM is supposed to erase oldest versions when drive fills up, but mine is now saying it cannot complete backup because of lack of disk space. Why will it not just erase old versions? 500gig MacBook - 1tb dedicated external time machine drive.
There is a limit. It removes older versions of each file, but keeps one copy at least (otherwise it wouldn't be a very good backup). So as you delete files and replace them with others there is one copy of the deleted file still around. That's how you fill up a Time Machine drive. How fast that happens depends on the type of things you do on your Mac. 1TB is definitely much too small of a drive for Time Machine in your case.
Hi Gary...I would like to take a backup of my macbook with time machine...now I already have data in my 4TB WD external hard drive ...is there a way to use time machine without deleting or removing the current data in my external hard drive? Thanks
Get a new drive for Time Machine. Don't try to share it with other data.
How do you back up the apps or software on your mac or does TM automatically backup everything you use on your device? E.G. your entire adobe creative suite.
It does, but that doesn't matter. If your Mac were to die or get stolen, you could just re-download the Adobe apps using Creative Cloud. No need to restore from a backup at all.
Do you have any videos regarding searching for files on an external drive? I'm having issues there. Files I know are on that drive are not present in the Finder search.
can I use the very same external HD to back up 2 Mac OSX systems...? in my case my MacBook runs Mavericks (1/3) and High Sierra (2/3) ... if yes how should I proceed...? maybe I have to apply 2 partitions and Time Machine back up Mavericks to one and High Sierra to another... right...?
If you are talking about a networked drive, then yes, people do that all the time. But if you have to physically move the drive from one Mac to another, then just get another drive for each to make it easier. Of course if you are using iCloud Drive and storing everything in there, you may only really need to backup one Mac since they would all have the same files on them, right?
@@macmost well, by now I'm using the same external HD (1T) divided in 2 partitions (500) to Time machine back up both systems ("Mavericks" & "High Sierra") I mean one system one partition ... thanks for your reply...! actually "work in progress", 6 hrs remaining...! for High Sierra...!
Hi Gary, love all your videos on Macs.I'm not sure if you can help me, but my desk top iMac stopped backing up to Time Machine. I went into settings and found out that Macintosh HD was listed as excluded from back-ups. I highlighted "Macintosh HD" and clicked the minus sign, but nothing changed. Any thoughts?
Not sure what is going on there. I'd call Apple Support to get to the bottom of it.
Thanks, I was afraid of that.@@macmost
So time machine can backup internal and external drive to one big backup drive? or do you have to have 2 backup drives?
It backs up multiple drives to one. Make sure your backup drive is big enough to hold it all, and then some, and then some more.
Great video my friend! I'm new to a lot of this and I found this very concise and helpful
If I use Time Machine, will there be a notification alert or warning if the backup drive fails? So that it can be replaced with a new backup hard drive.
Does Time Machine(or any backup service for that matter) capture corrupted files/virus or does it automatically fix it in the process?
Time Machine just backs up files, it doesn't scan them for issues.
Gary, are you able to use the external harddrive for both time machine and to store movies and music? Would I partition the external hard drive?
I strongly recommend against that. For one thing, it would mean the stuff on the other partition wouldn't be backed up (same drive, one point of failure). Just get another drive. They are cheap.
Sorry if this is a beginner question, I am replace my current external HD drive that I use for backups for a larger Capacity one, can I still plug in the old one and get a file from it after its not being used as the timemachine backup drive?
Thank you.
Yes. You can actually have multiple Time Machine backups. So when you start the new one, it is like you have two going. You can always bring in the original and grab a file from that (hopefully you don't need to, unless there is an emergency). I have done this, just keeping the old one around for a month or so.
@@macmost Thank you for the help.
Hi Gary,
Another splendid video! Thank you.
I really appreciate your style of delivery and the quality of your content.
At 1:52, you mentioned the option of connecting an external drive to a WiFi router. I like that option as I have an aging NAS (a 10 year old WD My Book Cloud drive). I want to replace it before it goes ka-put. Do you have a video with steps for that configuration? Or should I go for a replacement NAS kit. My apologies if this is a duplicate question (I might've overlooked it the comments).
Hi Gary,
I would love any instructions for this too! Any help? 😀
Hi Gary, thanks for the Great Video.
I am new to Apple eco system & I have a dumb question.. Can you please help me understand if multiple users with separate Apple IDs use the same Time Machine?
Example, can myself and my roommate use the same time Machine drive to take backups of our iphones and MacBooks without sharing our Apple ID credentials with each other?
Time Machine is for the whole Mac. Once you start the backup it will back up the entire drive (unless you exclude something manually) including all users. But Time Machine is for Macs, not iPhones. It won't do anything for your iPhone. If you let your roommate create another account on your Mac then it would back up their account too.
@@macmost thanks so much for the prompt response 🙏
Is there anything similar for iphone backups other than iCloud?
@@mediashare7021 Nothing similar. You can connect your iPhone to a Mac and use the backup function in the Finder to back up the iPhone's data. But that doesn't work very well as it relies on you manually connecting the iPhone. Using iCloud backup is best.
@@macmost thank your so much
Thank you, I was looking for a solution to back up my video files. I was wondering If my time machine drive could be the second drive in a daisy chain (first drive hooked up to my computer, second time machine hooked up to my first drive)?
Thanks for the wonderful and informative vid. A quick question , could Time Machine be used to restore a computer’s previous state . Let’s say, I have installed MS Office 365 into my Mac and I would like to use TimeMachine to go back to the state before MS Office was installed . The whole thing is like uninstall MS Office. Could Time Machine fulfil this function? Thanks in advance for your wonderful tips. 😊
Yes, using the Restore option in recovery mode. But you definitely don't want to do that to just uninstall Microsoft Office. That is way too much work with way too much risk for such a simple thing. Just uninstall it normally. Assuming you installed from the Microsoft download (not the Mac App Store) the instructions are here: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-for-mac-eefa1199-5b58-43af-8a3d-b73dc1a8cae3
@@macmost Thanks for your reply. Is the recovery mode you are referring to the bootup recovery option, from which we choose the backup drive?
@@justsradWell, yes. But I strongly advise you NOT to restore your Mac. Don't do it. Just uninstall Microsoft Office.
@@macmost I see. Got it. Thanks for your advice.
Gary why does fire vault keep stopping my external drive from backing up my drive to time machine
How to view, restore a photo from Time Machine? (not whole library, it's huge )
Macbook drive mainly has pics and own videos, got 2 TB ssd for TM, ran OK, can open TM, see Pictures folder with Photos lib in it (just like macbook finder.) Click Photos library in mb Finder Pictures folder, see pics OK
Click Photos in TM finder Pictures folder, it does not open Photos app (just a big dead file :)
Thanks for great, concise video. And any explanation: If MB ssd full, delete some videos or pics I know are on TM, how do I find, see and restore just those?
Super helpful!!! You answered all my questions. 🙏
Where does time machine keep data files associated with an app? After the last IOS update, I can no longer access an app so I’ve lost access to the text documents associated with it as well. I assume the time machine backup includes material synced from a device as well, I just can’t find it anywhere.
What if you are a person that uses a laptop just to listen to music, and send emails, just basic things like that.
Do you really need it? Because I’m trying to help my grandma out cuz she is running out of storage, the “system storage” is taking up a lot of space. And I found that backup time machine is probably mostly part of the system storage.
So, do you think I could delete some of the stuff that’s backed up? She just needs the laptop for listening for songs on chrome, and send emails, or letters.
Is there a problem though? It would use extra storage for backup "snapshots" but only if there is room. If she only uses it for these things, and there is no problem, don't worry about "system storage" and let macOS manage that.
@@macmost The problem is ... "she has reached the storage limit".
Specs: 121 GB, Macbook ari 2020.
In the Desktop: there is only 1 file, which is less than a Mega byte.
Applications: about 14 GB.
there was other stuff too, but the one that stood out the most was the system storage. It took almost half her storage. about 50 GB.
I tried looking in the library, but I don't see any big files, and I'm afraid to delete any files in the library, cuz first of all, there aren't any big files to delete (some of them or 0 bytes, some 2kb, 5kb...). And i'm kinda afraid that i might delete some important file.
So after doing some research, about how to manage, delete files from system storage, on most of the videos/articles I read, they mentioned time machine "snap shots", and deleting those might help.
@@Ginfio Don't worry about "categories" like system storage. Look in her Home folder. Which folder there is biggest? Look in Documents, same. Look in Applications. Do an inventory on a folder-by-folder basis to find out what is taking up space.
@@macmost hmm, ok.
I looked everywhere. but I WILL look again.
Do you think deleting older snapshots would be a bad idea, or do you think that could be something we could do? too.
@@Ginfio Does hurt too much to try it since she's not storing any data. But I doubt that is the issue.
Hi Gary! I have multiple USB Time Machine Backups. Right now I plug one in every week or so and let it do a backup then remove it. I would like to leave one in all the time and just swap them every so often, but then I have to eject the USB to unplug my Mac from the dock (which I always forget to do). Any tips for handling this other than going with the network option?
So it is a MacBook? Then why not do the network option? Or maybe do the online route with Backblaze or similar?
@@macmost I really like time machine, and prefer it over the others. I also like always having something offline. I think my solution will be to do both network and USB (temporarily connecting just to back up every so often). Just wish there was some option to tell TM to 'back up at 2pm then disconnect the drive' or something like that.
Great video! Thanks
Great video. I would like to buy a 4 TB external harddisk to connect to my network for backing up two macbooks. I already have a WD My passport for mac, but that does not seem to function in a network as it must be connected to a mac directly. Which harddisk could you recommend?
I don't have any specific recommendation as I haven't tried enough of a variety to say that one is better than the other. Just buy one that has good reviews. Why doesn't your current external drive work when connected to your network?
Do you recommend encrypting backups? Is it more unreliable for restoring the machine?
I am also wondering about encryption.....
I have time machine backups compiled on two drives. How can I merge them all together on one large drive? Dragging them dent work
I’ve got a question if I use time machine and I get everything backed up on a external hard drive and then just save it for future use. Then say a year from now I get a really bad virus that renders my Mac Book Pro almost useless . Can I use the time machine back up I have to go back and restore it to a time before I got the virus?
hey Gary any idea how to copy or transfer my time machine backups (apfs) Monterey to a new drive??
Does it back up ur apps?? And permissions???
As you said, I kept backing up two laptops in one external drive. I am trying to restore one of them (new SSD installed), and Disk Utility can only see other laptop's Time Machine file is not listed in the choice menu. How to get to them?
You should be using Migration Assistant, not Disk Utility, to restore to a new SSD. support.apple.com/en-us/HT203981